PACOIMA : Metrolink Launches Safety Campaign

Two days after a Metrolink train slammed into a stalled mini-van, killing a 46-year-old Pacoima woman, transit officials launched a new public safety campaign aimed at preventing future tragedies on its train tracks.

Metrolink, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Clippers and the advertising company Vista Metropolitan Media, announced Thursday that 550 billboards bearing messages such as “Don’t Pick a Fight With a Heavyweight,” and “Tracks Are For Trains, Stay Away and Stay Alive,” in both Spanish and English soon will appear along Metrolink rails in the San Fernando Valley.

For those who don’t understand the words of warning, a blurred, black-and-white photograph of an oncoming train is included on the billboards.

One-hundred fifty of the signs are already up in areas of the northeast Valley near Metrolink rails, officials said.

“We hope the public will see these signs and respect the right-of-way,” said Metrolink Safety Manager Ed Pederson, speaking beneath one of the billboards near tracks at San Fernando Road and Desmond Street in Pacoima.

Noting the large number of Latinos who reside in areas crossed by the Metrolink rails, Pederson added, “We’re trying to say to the Hispanic families who live in this area, ‘Don’t become complacent with the trains, don’t get near the intersections.’ ”

Stanley Roberts, a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, was on hand to promote the safety message. The Clippers and Metrolink are sponsoring a contest for high school students, who are encouraged to submit creative, artistic messages warning of the dangers of the tracks.

Less than a mile from where Pederson spoke Thursday, rail workers were repairing the severed guard gate at the tracks near Osborne Street where Maria Valadez died Tuesday after pulling her 7-year-old daughter to safety.

It was the first Metrolink fatality this year. Last year, 13 people were killed in eight accidents, according to Metrolink Spokesman Peter Hidalgo. Since Metrolink opened in October, 1992, there have been 26 deaths on the tracks. Half of them were suicides.